Metro Exodus Collector's Edition Just Has An 'Epic Store' Sticker To Cover Up The Steam Label

Deep Silver announced their decision to pull Metro Exodus from Steam in favor of an exclusivity deal with the Epic Games Store just a couple of weeks ago, on January 28. Since the choice was made so close to the games' February 15th release date, many wondered what would happen to the physical copies, which we rightly assumed, would all brandish Steam logos. The answer? Stickers, of course.

Lashman, who posts on behalf of design studio, RobotBrush, has posted a photo of the last-minute fix on Twitter. You can clearly see that the Metro Exodus covers have been designed and printed featuring the Steam logo on the back. This has since been covered over with a simple sticker, which now lists the system requirements next to an Epic Games Store logo.

The decision to change distribution platforms has been one of controversy, mostly due to the way it has been handled. It was announced on the Metro games website at the end of January, and many gamers were not happy.

The official announcement includes statements from both sides about the deal. Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic, said, “We are partnering with Deep Silver to launch Metro Exodus, underpinned by Epic’s marketing support and commitment to offering an 88% revenue split...”

The revenue split is also mentioned in a statement from Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO at Deep Silver, which says, “Epic’s generous revenue terms are a game changer that will allow publishers to invest more into content creation, or pass on savings to the players. By teaming up with Epic we will be able to invest more into the future of Metro and our ongoing partnership with series developer 4A Games, to the benefit of our Metro fans.”

via vg247.com

Founded by Valve Corporation back in 2003, Steam boasts a gigantic 150 million registered users. It has grown and changed a great deal over the years, but has rarely faced much competition. There are other platforms out there, but few have ever come close to offering a realistic competitor to Valve’s juggernaut. Now it seems all that may be about to change.

Past Metro games have always been available on Steam, and many PC gamers were opposed to the move. Epic’s terms however are managing to entice some big titles over to their side, including Ubisoft’sThe Division 2.

For Steam users however, the news is not all bad. Metro Exoduswas briefly available on the platform, before the exclusive deal was struck, and those pre-orders have been honored. Furthermore, those gamers will actually have an advantage, as Metro Exodus will pre-load for existing Steam pre-orders, but Epic Games store users will not get the same ability.

It remains to be seen if the Epic Games Store can shape up into some serious competition for Steam, but they are certainly starting to make an impression.

Metro Exodus is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.